Whiteboard desks a hit with Project CDA students
<p>Marc Anthony Guardado works a geometry problem on his whiteboard desk. In background, teacher Matt Werner assists two other students in his fourth-period math class.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - While most students are admonished not to write on their desks, students in Matt Werner's class at Project CDA alternative high school are not only told it is OK, but are encouraged to do so.
After Lakes Middle School was remodeled last summer and equipped with new classroom furniture, Werner picked through the discards to find desks to replace three old lunch tables that had provided seating for his math and economics classes. He then came up with the idea of facing the surfaces with whiteboard so students could do math problems, erase them, and do more calculations.
Werner enlisted the help of Ben Higgs, Project's manufacturing teacher. Higgs taught students in his cabinetry class how to resurface the desks with whiteboard left over from District projects.
The erasable surfaces have been in use about a month and Werner said the results have been terrific.
"I now have reluctant math students begging for whiteboard markers to do their math problems on the tops of their desks. Participation is higher. Interaction is improved, and completion of assignments is their goal because students say 'this is fun,'" Werner said.
"It's really helpful; it gives me more workspace," said sophomore Taylor Erwin.
Marc Anthony Guardado agreed. "You get to write all over it instead of on a little piece of paper."
Werner said it is advantageous as a teacher because he can work around the room better and the students are interacting with one another to solve algebra and geometry problems. The only downside, he said, is they go through a lot of dry erase markers, which run $1.30 each.
Werner hopes the students' new interest in math translates to higher scores on the Idaho Standards Achievement Test that is required in 10th grade.
Janet Feiler is a spokeswoman for the Coeur d'Alene School District.